What does Miles Davis have to do with managing high performers in business? Good question. Miles Davis is rightfully acclaimed as an icon of jazz but he didn’t make music alone. Throughout his career as a bandleader, Miles worked with other iconic figures of jazz to create music that stands even today as among the […]
What is meant by achievement vs ascription? I recently had a conversation when a German friend of mine described a family member as “My father’s sister”. Thinking she was momentarily missing the word “Aunt”, I offered the correction only to be corrected myself. She told me she knew the word “Aunt” but the women she […]
Are you delivering audience-centered presentations? Presentations training has been a big part of the work we’ve done in Europe over the years. This is especially true for working with speakers of English as a foreign language. Everyone understands the importance of presentations. Everyone talks about the potential for generating new business, for influencing others, and […]
The question seems simple enough—“Are we on time?” but that seemingly simple question can unlock different ways of viewing time and the commitments associated with our view of time. My experience with intercultural training has made me think about, and look at, that question a bit differently. “On time” in Ghana It reminds me of […]
Even with all my experience traveling and leading intercultural training, I still come across some situations that surprise me a bit. On my first trip to Ghana I hired a driver to take me from Accra to Kumasi. I met the driver in the morning and before we got underway he said we needed to […]
Living and working in an intercultural world and leading intercultural training means I have the chance to notice differences. One of the things I’ve noticed in traveling between Germany and the US may strike you as odd but I think it helps make a point. When I visit the public WC in a German airport […]
Sometimes we are faced with difficult intercultural challenges at the workplace or in our personal lives. Here is a good example of a common question asked within the intercultural arena: Q: Why do Americans have such short attention spans? When Americans ask questions and I begin to answer with the necessary context they need to […]
